Academics struggle to challenge published research without legal risk when citing copyrighted material as evidence

Researchers and academics need to submit copyrighted excerpts from published articles to journal editors to document concerns about flawed or problematic research, but face legal uncertainty about fair use and copyright infringement. Current solutions fail because fair use doctrine is ambiguous in academic dispute contexts, and researchers lack clear guidance on how much copyrighted material they can legally include in their complaints without exposing themselves to legal liability.